Homer Barrage Not Enough to Dump Sox

  The Dayton Rangers belted three long balls at Rotary Park but could not muster enough small-ball to knock off the Beavercreek Sox, as the Rangers fell 11-5 on Sunday, May 31^st.

The Sox jumped out to a six-run lead in the second on four extra-base hits and some fielding miscues. The Rangers countered with two of their own in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run to straight-away center off the bat of rookie third baseman Robert Riley. A solo shot from Steve Marshall cut the Sox lead in half at 6-3 after five innings. Brad Clark started on the mound for the Rangers, and after a shaky second inning, cruised through the next four innings giving up only one hit. The Rangers continued to chip away at the Sox lead when Jonmarc Lippincott led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to left, followed by a two-run home run from Clint Wolf to make the score 6-5 in favor of the Sox.

Momentum soon shifted as Clark was excused from the game upon throwing his bat after striking out to end the inning. Shawn Schmitt relieved Clark in the seventh only to be done in by three fielding errors in the inning and one more in the ninth to account for the Sox final runs of the night. The Rangers could only muster one hit, while striking out 6 times (13 times total on the night) in the final three frames to fall 11-5.

Offensive highlights: Robert Riley 1-for-3 HR, 2RBI; Clint Wolf 1-for-3, HR, 2RBI, SB; Steve Marshall 2-for-3 HR, SB

Historical notes: Shawn is now 22 strikeouts shy of the MVABL all-time strikeout mark. Jonmarc is 6 hits shy of 500 as a Ranger. Jacob Robinson is 2 runs shy of scoring 100 career runs in the MVABL. Clint registered his 242^nd career hit in the MVABL, as well as his 181^st RBI, pushing him into 4^th all-time in the league in both categories.